In October, the unemployment rate remained below the 2 percent threshold for two consecutive months. If you look back more than a month, the last time the rate was this low was more than twenty years ago.
At the end of October, 89,636 people were registered as unemployed at regional employment centers (RAV). That was 110 more than in September, but still 27,097 less than in the same month last year, the Secretariat of State for Economic Affairs (Seco) said on Monday. As a result, the unemployment rate stood at 1.9 percent compared to the previous month.
Seasonally adjusted, that is, excluding seasonal factors, it remained at 2.1 percent. Economists polled by the AWP news agency had expected at least a slight increase.
Finding suitable personnel for companies is more difficult than it has been in a long time. Before September 2022, the unemployment rate was last below 2 percent in October 2001. A year ago, this rate was 2.5 percent.
The job market has dried up
How dry the job market in Switzerland is can also be seen from the job search data. According to Seco, that number was 160,094 in October, 695 more than in September. But a year ago there were 43,759 more. The number of jobs reported to RAV decreased by 6,953 to 62,889 in the month reviewed.
According to the information, 49,563 of the jobs declared open were subject to the job registration requirement for occupations with an unemployment rate of at least 5 percent. These occupations include the hotel and catering industry or construction, to name a few. The list is updated for each new year.
The short-time work tool no longer plays a role in the Swiss labor market. In August – data reported with a lag – only 1595 people were still in short-term employment. Thus, the number of short-term employees decreased by 397 people compared to the previous July. The number of companies affected by the short-run fell by about 32 percent to 236 companies.
When it comes to evictions, the number of people who exhausted their unemployment benefit entitlement in August 2022 was 2,266 according to preliminary information. (SDA)